Domestic laundry washing machines can be of the top loading or front leading type, according to the arrangement of the opening for the loading and unloading of the clothes from the machine. The existence of two such categories of machines is due to various factors, including the availability of space within the house, aesthetic needs and, last but not least, the simple preference of the user for one type of laundry washing machine compared to the other.
Generally front-loading laundry washing machines are made up of a parallelepiped cabinet containing a tub assembly. The tub assembly can include a container for the washing liquid, or a tub in a strict sense of the word, within which a basket for the laundry is mounted in a way so as to enable it to rotate around a substantially horizontal axis. In the case of front loading machines the basket, of a cylindrical form, has an opening in its frontal wall, substantially coaxial with two openings respectively present on the frontal wall of the tub and of the cabinet of the machine. The laundry is thus loaded and unloaded in relation to the basket through these openings such that, during the functioning of the machine, the opening of the tub is closed by a door, generally of a circular form.
Inside the cabinet, appropriate means are provided for producing the rotation of the basket (electric motor, belts and pulleys). Means are also provided for the supply and the discharge of the washing liquid from the tub (hydraulic conduits and one or more pumps) and a distributor device for washing agents, able to supply over determined times of the operating cycle of the laundry washing machine the detergent or possible additives inside the tub. The distributor can have a drawer-like form with a number of distinct compartments and can be housed in the upper part of the cabinet of the machine. The tub assembly has appropriate equalizing or balancing masses, generally constituted by one or more counterweights of cement, or cast iron, or inert material, and by the motor itself of the laundry washing machine. This counterweighted assembly is centrally suspended inside the cabinet of the machine by means of suspension and/or support units.
The motor is usually fixed beneath the washing tub, while the cited counterweights and suspension/support elements are arranged at appropriate points, between the tub and the cabinet of the machine, i.e. in the frontal and/or upper, and/or rear part of the washing tub.
The frontal counterweight can for example be composed of a toroidal element in cast iron, or cement, or inert material, fixed to the tub around its frontal opening. The manner of fixing the frontal counterweight varies from traditional solutions such as screws and nuts, to more evolved solutions wherein the counterweight is fixed by means of the closure rim off the tub with the frontal bottom. In any case it is the tub that supports the ballast and thus it must be provided with suitable brackets. In other known machines (see for example the document GB-A-2,096,649) a frontal drawn counterflange is provided that, together with horizontal cross members and a rear bottom, forms the load bearing structure of the tub. In this case a cement or inert material mass is frontally suspended from the counter flange. This arrangement necessitates a frontal counter-flange of a very heavy material, so as to ensure the required sturdiness.
The upper counterweight is generally constituted by one or more masses of cement or inert material, fixed, in a yoke fashion, to the upper cross member of the tub assembly by ray of a sheetplate bridge (see the previously cited GB-A-2,096,649). In this way, the rear counterweight may be constituted by a toroidol element in cement or inert material fixed to the rear cross section of the tub, or by a mass anchored to said upper cross member of the tub assembly. In other known configurations it is the same cross member of the tub, in an appropriate material and weight (usually cast iron) that forms the rear counterweight.
The tub assembly, including associated elements and balancing masses, constitutes an oscillating group, that, as said, is suspended and supported by suitable elastic and damping elements. Such elements are generally constituted by springs above, and shock absorbers below, fixed between the cross members or suitable brackets of the tub and the cabinet of the machine.
The distribution of the various aforementioned components inside the cabinet of the front leading laundry washing machine is, according to above prior art, the source of several problems.
There are for example the abovementioned constructive problems, according to which a plurality of means are to be provided for the fixing of the counterweights in numerous established points of the tub assembly, and of means, such as cross members, for strengthening the same group.
There are above all drawbacks for the user, that must bear a certain discomfort in the loading and unloading operations of the laundry; in fact, according to the prior art, in front loading machines the opening for loading is in the part substantially intermediate of the front of the machine, or in a position which is not at all ergonomic regards height.
There have been proposed for this purpose laundry washing machines in which the frontal load opening and the relative door are slightly raised if compared to the normal, but without determining substantial advantages regarding the problems mentioned above. Such compromising solutions have been obtained by simply making the frontal opening of the cabinet and of the tub slightly higher, but without any further substantial modifications to the group and to the location of the various components cited above.
For facilitating the frontal loading the size of the load opening has also been altered, by enlargement. This arrangement has been found to be unsatisfactory. In fact, the greater the size of the opening of the basket, the less is the capacity of its frontal wall in its function of containing, or preventing, the exiting of clothes, once the latter have been introduced in the basket or on the moment of opening the porthole.